8 comments:

Hi Nik! This post is really interesting..I agree with you, absolutely. In the near future teachers will have to be digital skilled professionals even if now it is sometimes difficult trying to make this point clear to colleagues who consider web2 tools a waste of time.We need a lot of training and support. In this direction your blogs are of great help...I've been learning a lot from you.Thanks!!! :)

Hey Nik.I'm going to be taking an intensive CELTA course in NYC in a few weeks and you can bet that I'll be taking this print out with me! I will then respectfully request, if not adamantly demand, that everyone in the program follow your blog and "get digital". Wonder how much of this will be at least touched on. I'll keep you posted, if you're interested.

Meanwhile, thanks for doing so much legwork for our collective benefit.

Thanks Nik for all you share with us.I've just answered the questions in your skills checklist and I feel bad about the number of things I can't do... yet.One of the things I'd like to learn, is how to make my own material, apart hotpotatoes ex, to use with the IWB. Best

Everything you have said here is very true. I'm currently taking a course on computers in the classroom and many of these same skills have come up in various discussions. It is certainly true that even five years ago some of these skills weren't relative and now they have almost become a necessary part of the classroom.

My guess is that 90+% of primary and secondary school teachers here in the UK would have exactly the opposite responses. The 10% web savvy one would be under 25. They are the niche group that have responded ;-)

Most teachers can't even access web 2.0 tools from a school network due to social network tags hitting the filtering.

Yes, You are right of course at least in terms of an audit of the general taching community. The fact that the poll is online and how it was circulated (Twitter + email lists etc.) means that it has taken responses from the most competent and IT skilled teachers.

It is still interesting though in what it dos show among these teachers (the comparatively large percentage that still don't feel trained to use IWBs).

I ran another poll for a presentation I was doing at IATEFL and this one was on what teachers felt were the obstructions to using Web 2.0 type tools with students. It pretty much backs up what you are sayng about sites being blocked etc. Poll

Taking this poll a year and a half later in 2012, I'm a tad embarassed at the considerable gap between what I know how to do and how few of these skills and technologies I've implemented. On the other hand, I added mock job interviews with webcameras last semester and deployed more discussion board exercises in writing courses. Finally, allow me to make two critical points. First, it behooves administrators and educational institutions to literally invest - in technology, technology training, and teacher grants - if they want teachers to use 21st century educational tools. Many excellent institutions - including the University of Southern California - have taken these positive steps.Second, the survey uses the word "exploit" several times to measure teacher use of new technologies. Perhaps a better word would be "use" or "deploy". Or so it seems to me.

Thanks for leaving a message and for your honest comments. Re the use of the word 'exploit'. Exploit is defined as: ex·ploit/ikˈsploit/Verb: Make full use of and derive benefit from (a resource): "500 companies sprang up to exploit this new technology".

So for me 'exploit' is far more articulate and accurate than either 'use or 'deploy'.